By Stephan Sookram

THE West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) continues to come under fire over its alleged mistreatment of the players during and after the recently concluded World T20 in India.Education Minister Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine is the latest to weigh in to the Region’s talking point and had some strong words for the management of the WICB.
“I believe that there is a deteriorated situation between the board and the cricketers and it’s not very good and I think that since the cricketers are doing fairly well, the board should pull its socks up and do as well as the cricketers,” Dr. Roopnaraine said.
Giving Chronicle Sport an exclusive comment, the Education Minister contended that the board must be able to meet in the middle in an attempt to solve the latest problem plaguing the regional game.
Dr. Roopnaraine is no stranger to cricket having spent time at the crease as a player for Demerara as well as a first-division, lower-order batsman during his stint at Cambridge University in the early days.
His comment while brief, was along the same line of opposition leader and former president Bharrat Jagdeo, who earlier in the week called for the WICB and the players to iron out the issues, with CARICOM as the mediator.
He was at the time meeting with the Guyanese players who were part of the championship-winning U-19 and women’s teams, when he encouraged them to continue to do well for Guyana.
“You have a friend in the Ministry of Education,” contended Dr. Roopnaraine, who also committed his ministry’s support in areas where necessary for the continued development of both sets of players.
The male U-19 players were Shimron Hetmyer, Keemo Paul and Tevin Imlach, while the women cricketers included Tremayne Smartt and Shemaine Campbelle.
In a speech after his side’s historic World T20 win, West Indies captain Darren Sammy thanked CARICOM heads for their support during the tournament, but lamented the fact that the team had not heard from the WICB.
“That is very disappointing,” Sammy said.
He added: “I don’t know when I’m going to be playing with these guys again, because we don’t get selected for one-day cricket. We don’t know when we’re going to be playing T20.”
To date, others who have weighed in on the controversy include former West Indies Test captains Ramnaresh Sarwan and Sir Vivian Richards as well as historian and current Vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hillary Beckles.